A transdisciplinary partnership to improve healthy food and nutrition choices in South Boston, through youth empowerment

South Boston is among the poorest urban areas in the country with nearly one in four of its residents living in poverty. Against a backdrop of high substance abuse and crime, the South Boston Community Health Center runs the ‘Institute for a Healthier Community' (IHC) to enable and support youth to become positive role models. This presentation describes and evaluates a partnership project between IHC youth and public health, medical and dental students that addressed youth identified issues around nutrition such as access to, awareness and availability of healthy food. The goal of this project was to empower South Boston youth to be leaders in engaging with their community to choose healthier lifestyles through the promotion of nutritious diets and physical activity. To achieve this goal, the student team used the Challenge Model, which is a leadership development tool developed by the Management Sciences for Health, adopting a systematic approach to the project, starting with a shared vision, a specific mission, situation analysis, identification of barriers and facilitators and ending with an operational plan to achieve measurable results. A consensual decision was taken to develop and showcase at least two, youth developed, nutrition related products and activities, on the South Boston community's youth led annual event named ‘Community Day', with the active participation of 10 youth. The project was executed successfully with the results surpassing the measurable result target. Final recommendations included utilizing, promoting and developing further, the products that were developed for the Community Day.